“Thanks, Squad Leader. It’s fine, I can go into the water,” Tang Mo said with gratitude, quickly taking off her jacket to reveal a layer of black long-sleeved, full-length swimsuit underneath.
The swimsuit was taken from the supermarket. Tang Mo had purposely chosen a few sizes larger, so the loose clothing hid her delicate figure entirely, showing not a trace of it. She neatly placed her jacket and shoes on the boat and stepped into the water barefoot.
Since she had chosen to catch fish, she wouldn’t be pretentious. In the apocalypse, there were no rules about boys letting girls take the lead—girls who acted aloof usually died the fastest.
The lake in early autumn was indeed bone-chilling. Even Tang Mo, fully clothed in long sleeves and pants, shivered when she first entered the water. She immediately began to use her spiritual energy to keep warm.
After circulating her spiritual energy, she finally felt comfortable, her entire body warm and no longer noticing the icy water. Who said spiritual energy was useless? Clearly, it was essential for survival in this world. Tang Mo silently defended her beloved spiritual power.
In her hands, she held a mini fishing net made from a canvas bag. Tiny finger-sized holes were cut all around it so water could drain while scooping fish.
As she looked for fish, she kept an eye on others to see if anyone else was catching anything. For safety, the small boats weren’t far apart, all within Tang Mo’s line of sight.
Honestly, the school stocked a lot of fish fry every year, but no matter how many were released, the lake was just too big.
After ten minutes, no one had even seen a fish, and the initial enthusiasm for fishing waned, with some starting to slack off.
That wouldn’t do—if everyone wasn’t actively fishing, when would her rare treasure appear? If she ended up like in her previous life, where she only caught anything two months after the official announcement, the difficulty of obtaining it would be much higher.
With that in mind, Tang Mo found a packet of bread crumbs in the supermarket.
This was normally used for frying food. She didn’t have fish bait, but the fish should like this, right? She left the packaging in her space and willed a handful of bread crumbs into her hand.
Clenching her fist and submerging it, she let the crumbs slip through her fingers into the water.
Circling in the water, she appeared to be searching for fish, but in reality, she was scattering the breadcrumbs widely and subtly.
Sure enough, the fish were just as hungry as the people. Drawn by the scent of food, they quickly gathered nearby.
“I see fish!” a boy exclaimed excitedly.
Everyone in the water looked toward his direction. Sure enough, a dozen golden-red carp swam there, seemingly jostling over something.
“What are these fish doing?” someone asked.
“Probably just playing in the water,” Tang Mo said with a small, embarrassed laugh.
Next time, she realized, she shouldn’t put out so many crumbs at once. Having never kept fish, she didn’t know how strongly bread crumbs attracted them.
Seeing the prey, everyone’s energy returned.
A few people formed a pincer movement to surround the fish, using various tools—sheets, plastic bags, even badminton rackets—to trap them. Later, during a break, Tang Mo couldn’t resist asking the boy with the racket why he chose it. Shyly, he said he planned to stun the fish when he saw them.
Well… Tang Mo could only laugh inwardly. That wasn’t a bad idea. Truly, as the saying goes, everyone has their own way of doing things.
Thanks to everyone working together, they caught eight carp. Though some still escaped, it was already a pleasant surprise for those armed with sheets and rackets.
“Here, wipe yourself off,” Tang Lianjie offered Tang Mo a towel as she returned from the boat.
“No, thanks,” she said, giving him no glance and heading straight to her backpack, pulling out a large bath towel to dry herself.
Protected by her spiritual energy, she didn’t feel cold at all. Her short hair was convenient; she didn’t even get wet, only wiping off the water droplets on her waterproof swimsuit.
Tang Lianjie stood there awkwardly, holding the towel.
A shadow of annoyance passed over Tang Mo’s eyes. Hmph. Acting all high and mighty. Next time, I’ll throw two packs of instant noodles at you and see if you’re still proud.
Tang Lianjie looked alright, with a well-groomed appearance, but his style and demeanor were greasy and ostentatious, making him seem untrustworthy. Without some background, he would never have become the second-in-command.
Tang Mo remembered that he caused quite a few problems later, all cleaned up thanks to a supportive school leader. His family had some minor influence and money, but in the current world, that meant nothing; the money was just useless numbers.
Tang Mo wasn’t afraid of him. Just because she kept a low profile didn’t mean she’d tolerate being bullied. If Tang Lianjie dared to mess with her, she wouldn’t hesitate to give him a “surprise.”
After this, fishing wasn’t so smooth. By the end of the afternoon, the group had only caught five fish—pathetically few. Tang Mo preferred to stop while ahead; one feeding of breadcrumbs per day was enough. Too much would seem unnatural.
In total, there were thirteen fish. Tang Lianjie thought it was too few and remained sullen the entire way back.
But when they met up with An Yang’s group, they realized their numbers were balanced: under a hundred people caught thirteen fish, while An Yang’s several hundred people only caught three chickens and two rabbits in a day. That made Tang Lianjie feel somewhat relieved, and in the following days, he was less difficult to deal with.
The catch was small, but the school remained surprisingly calm. Everyone knew this exercise was mainly to keep students occupied, not for self-sufficiency.
The next day, everyone did eat the things they had worked so hard to catch—or rather, the soup made from them.
To maximize resources, the school made one pot each of fish, chicken, and rabbit soup. Regular students got a small bowl; only those who caught the prey got meat. How much meat there was, or if the student leaders kept any for themselves, was unclear.
“Only this tiny bowl of soup? At least I’ll have to drink my own water to fill up,” Li Lanlan finished her soup in a few gulps, looking enviously at those eating meat.
But no one expected that a month and a half into the apocalypse, some students would be poisoned by drinking water!
It wasn’t a small number—about thirty people.
Since the school’s information was more limited than the outside world, even with the school hospital, they were powerless. The leadership had no choice but to contact outside experts—and received shocking news:
Tap water was no longer drinkable.
Over the past few days, many people had been hospitalized for poisoning. They ate only government-issued relief rations. After repeated testing, experts concluded the water was contaminated.
Due to soil degradation, the riverbeds had long been polluted, and over a month later, the contamination had seeped into underground water, rivers, lakes, and seas.
No matter how clear the water looked, it could no longer be consumed. Filtering, disinfecting, or boiling could not remove the harmful substances.
The contamination had just begun. Only the weak or those who drank large amounts were initially poisoned. As time went on, the water would become increasingly toxic. Initially, excessive drinking would lead to organ failure within a week, but in later stages, just a few sips could kill someone within a day.
The toxin was irreversible. Like the deadliest pesticide, even immediate stomach pumping would have little effect; death was inevitable.
This meant people could now only rely on bottled water to survive.
Experts had only just reached this conclusion and had not made it public.
“What? Tap water is no longer drinkable? That means we won’t even have water to fill up?”
“Right. We can go without food for a while, but without water, how can we survive?”
Compared to the crop deaths earlier, the large-scale water contamination was far harder to accept.
Fortunately, since the apocalypse, they had been drinking water from the school’s water facility; the stored water in the warehouse remained untouched.
The leaders panicked again and held a long meeting with all student leaders, eventually deciding that from the next day, each person would get half a bottle of mineral water per day.
At that consumption rate, the school’s stock would last about half a month. Beyond that, it was left to fate.
Despair settled on everyone’s faces. For the first time, they truly realized they were being pushed into a dead end.